…on Reddit very soon.
What?
For those who don’t read Reddit regularly, Reddit announced a slew of API changes, one of which is essentially saying that API calls are going to cost a lot of money. In this case, so much that it will kill any third party applications that access the platform.
I wouldn’t normally have a problem with this, but the fact that Reddit has essentially tried to extort, blackmail, and antagonize a developer while simultaneously screwing him over, for designing an app that’s better than theirs without ads, is just awful.
Ok, so why do I care?
There’s essentially three reasons why.
Interactions
I’ve unfortunately been a redditor for a while, and it’s essentially allowed me to explore nearly all of my interests undisturbed for many years, with people who talk to on nearly everything from discovering r/Civcraft and this “"”wonderful community””” back in 2015, the absurdity of r/me_irl in 2016, to the release of the r/NintendoSwitch and my addiction into 2017, and later into Modded Minecraft and r/FeedTheBeast in 2019 and r/Baseball, r/RedSox, and r/Mariners last year that really got me into this really boring sport.
If it wasn’t for these communities and people to talk to on the internet, I don’t think I would have survived these past years. Reddit and Discord are some of the few places left on the internet where you can generally talk to real people and have human interactions online.
Third Party Mobile
That being said, upon beginning 2014 I’ve been a user of Alien Blue, and when it was bought out by Reddit in 2015, I initially switched over to the Official App. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t the same and was probably the worst Reddit experience on there. There’s very little customizability, and legitimately was a terrible experience overall. I uninstalled it as soon as there was a better Reddit client out.
That Reddit Client, as I’m an iPhone user, was Apollo. While it did take some time getting used to it, the interface was so much better. The one thing I loved here in Apollo was the compactness of it to get as much actual content on your screen as possible. And it’s well designed for the platform, it feels like if Apple tried to make a Reddit browser themselves, adhered to design principles, and is one of the best ways to navigate Reddit.
I’m sure that Android users can say the same for Reddit is Fun or other platforms like Sync.
It’s something that Reddit is still trying to learn eight years now as it tries to cram ads and NFTs down your throat.
Apollo is essentially where I’m spending most of my Reddit browsing time now when I’m not actively making a post, with the exception of old.reddit.com when I’m on my computers, because I was born and raised on it AND the addition of Reddit Enhancement Suite. I even paid money to Apollo because it was just so dang good.
At this point, it’s better that I put my mind off Reddit on the phone and do something productive with my life if these API changes go through.
The Newsletter
As you know, the newsletter was created in mid-2022 as a way to publicize and keep track of current events for the CivWiki, as well as a way to highlight past Civ history for the masses.
One of the only ways to publicize things for Civ at the time was to post to the active Reddit forums, at the time CivMC.
This has always been the case for quite literally everything, from my Newfriend Nations guides, to just Newfriend Guides, and even a little known shitpost of mine called “Hearthstone Metas Throughout the Years”, which fun fact, is still my most upliked post of all time.
I owe Reddit nearly all of my success as a D-tier content creator throughout the years. Even though I advertise the newsletter on a semi-large scale on Discord, about 2/3 of all impressions on the newsletter come from Reddit. That’s quite insane, and Civ still remains a large part of it, but the fact of the matter is that’s going to drop as people leave.
The boycott and subsequent leaving of people on Reddit is going to hit the ‘newfriend market’, and could make it harder to discover Civ.
It’s also entirely possible that many of the mods and admins on Civ use third-party tools and mobile for their own devices. I’m kind of interested to see who actually uses Reddit on their phone.
Civ owes a lot to Reddit for its success (or more accurately, its continued existence) and I’ve got a very conflicted view of the whole API drama. But the fact of the matter is that this is still going to affect newfriend retention and make it just that much tougher for Civ to survive.
I know like, maybe 20% of the community actually cares and reads the subreddit on a daily basis, but the fact that its CEO lies and accuses blackmail is just absolutely absurd.
To me, it’s just another company prioritizing business^TM over its users, and I’m really not happy about it and the fact that it the knock-on side-effects are going to affect my bottom line is quite harrowing.
So how’s it going to work now?
During the vacation I’ve been essentially been working on a very fun revamp of the newsletter that I’m excited to unveil to all of you guys; however I need a few days to finish that and also finish up writing a newsletter that covers the last few weeks.
The next three newsletters, on June 14 (it’s a Wednesday, I know), June 19, and June 26 will probably be the final newsletters posted on Reddit. I’m only going to sporadically answer comments, most likely not even looking at them until late in the week. If you’d like to issue corrections, message me at @specificlanguage on Discord.
If you’d like to get your newsletters and cup of coffee on Monday mornings this summer, you should follow the newsletter on Discord to get the latest information. I might possibly also introduce an email newsletter this summer as I have time, which may make it easier for everyone.
Hopefully this week I’ll also be introducing a front-end revamp for the newsletter, so I’m sure all of you are excited for that.
While there’s not going to be a lot changing on the Reddit side, I’m notifying everyone that Reddit is going to much less a part of my life, and I’m disgusted at the state of social media today.
TLDR: I’ve owed most of both my own and the newsletter’s success to Reddit, and the fact the API changes have essentially affected my way of life and will also ultimately hurt the bottom line for Civ. As a result and for my way of protesting these changes, newsletters will no longer be posted by me on Reddit starting July 1.
TLDR for the TLDR: Reddit bad, no newsletter on Reddit.
See you all on Wednesday.